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04.09

Network Purposefully™ To Accelerate Your Executive Job Search

By Debra Feldman

You’re probably already aware that today’s job market is tight, tough and trying. Modern success requires game-changing activities. If you still think that a few confidential calls to eager headhunters, several smartly placed online profiles, and a handful of finely tuned resumes circulating discretely will have you overbooking your calendar with interview appointments, think again.

Job hunting has become a contact sport. Be prepared for some rough and tumble times. This job market is all about relationships. You’ve got to Network Purposefully™: research and identify individuals who have access to desirable connections, opportunities, position openings, and information, who likely to produce an acceptable new career challenge and develop a relationship focused on mutual support, not just focused on job leads. Your network, and not just what you know, is the key to finding a new opportunity — the more people who know what you know, the faster the path to a new job.

If you are like many successful executives, you have not had to proactively seek new opportunities; traditionally, employers competed for your talents, recruiters sought you out, and your network connections handed over desirable leads. Job hunting may be new to you. Now you will have to learn to compete in today’s job market. To land a new opportunity, you’ll need to transform yourself into a superior prospective employee, recognizable as the preferred candidate. You’ll need the right job search strategies and techniques, and you’ll need to be extremely persistent in executing your plan. A steady forward momentum will be maintained by anticipating barriers and aggressively removing obstacles impeding progress.

Outlined below is a job search campaign project plan that will accelerate job search progress to land faster in today’s job market by creating an effective go-to market strategy and execution roadmap.

Focus on employers who can appreciate you for the skills, talents, credentials and experiences you offer — Determine target employer characteristics and describe companies where you would like to work or whose employees can refer you to opportunities. Beyond target employers, create a potential networking target list of individuals who may be able to make valuable referrals to job leads.

• Don’t attempt to represent yourself as everyone’s and anybody’s perfect employee

• Do focus on being an expert with special value to a select group of employers who are able to appreciate your potential value for their team

• Don’t sum up the quantity of your applications or size of your network

• Do emphasize the quality of your contacts and the strength of your relationships

Identify positioning to attract the attention of preferred employers — Describe where your abilities, knowledge, talents, and skills intersect with target employer needs, and show how you will satisfy these requirements. Individualize campaign communications (resume, letters of introduction, elevator pitch) for each target employer or contact. Identify your outstanding strengths, credentials and qualifications, and match them to the needs of each individual target company.

• Don’t list everything you’ve achieved; just the achievements most suited to an employer’s current needs and appropriate for your current career goal

• Do create a high-impact profile highlighting the accomplishments that would give employers a sense of your potential value to their organization

• Don’t focus on your career goals, or your interest in learning at the employer’s expense

• Do concentrate on what employers expect from their team members, and show them how your skills and talents will provide an immediate, measurable contribution

Differentiate yourself as a reliable, trustworthy first choice expert — Detail distinguishing characteristics that separate you from competitors (e.g., background, experience, connections, passion, unique experiences, etc.). Describe your unique value contribution, using quantifiable terms to show remarkable influence and quantified impact. Individualize campaign communications (resume, letters of introduction, elevator pitch) for each target employer or contact.

• Don’t lose sight that a resume is a marketing document and is not a chronological report

• Do customize resumes to address specific requirements, and rearrange resume content to match prospective employers’ priorities

• Don’t include irrelevant information or simply list various talents — be selective

• Do demonstrate specific skills and special talents with illustrative examples using dollars, numbers or percentages to show measurable impact

Once you have an effective plan, you’ll be ready for the implementation strategies that use networking purposefully to find a great new career opportunity faster by avoiding mistakes, and eliminating wasted time and ineffective efforts.

Connect with hiring decision makers and make a positive first impression to promote a strong relationship — Make contact directly with hiring authorities, gain their trust, cultivate their support, demonstrate how you can solve challenges, add to the bottom line, fit into corporate culture, contribute immediately without a learning curve.

• Don’t ask about job openings explicitly; doing so may cause an employer to avoid a conversation or scheduling an appointment

• Do attract employers’ attention by seeking advice and information; conduct research to learn about potential challenges ripe for solving

• Don’t expect immediate results; it may take several tries to connect and establish trust before assistance is offered

• Do aim on developing good rapport and promoting meaningful dialogue that may unearth possible opportunities

Stay on the radar screen — Be patient. “Polite, persistent, pings” avoids missing out on an unexpected opportunity. Remember to give to your connections offering your resources. Suggest relevant references online or in traditional media. Out of sight is out of mind so don’t drop out. Bring people with mutual interests together. Send acknowledgments, thank yous and updates to spur conversations.

• Don’t only be a taker

• Do pay it forward: give assistance, bring people with mutual interests together and look for ways to help others

• Don’t rely on others to bring offers to you

• Do make it easy to remember you, and keep yourself on their radar by regular, courteous communication

Expand your personal network and keep in touch — Reach beyond employees at your target companies and connect with authors, key industry figures, academic thought leaders and others whom hiring managers may go to for a recommendation. Be inventive. Talk with and seek relationships with suppliers, vendors and consultants affiliated with your target employers.

• Don’t expect current sources to instantly produce lucrative networking referrals

• Do count on working hard to cement new relationships and keep up with existing connections

• Don’t network only with decision makers who may be busy or inaccessible

• Do access leads indirectly through suppliers, vendors, consultants, former co-workers and others

Persevere. Job searching is a marathon not a sprint. Networking purposefully is the very best strategy for making connections, establishing relationships and unearthing new career opportunities. It may take multiple tries to reach a new connection for a one-to-one interaction and several conversations/meetings to develop genuine interest, cultivate valuable trust and promote assistance. Regularly accessing targeted contacts produces more and better results faster — referrals, leads and offers.

Debra Feldman , founder of JobWhiz, is an executive talent agent with more than 20 years of senior management consulting experience. She uses networking to identify and connect candidates with unadvertised new career opportunities in the hidden job market. For more information, visit  www.JobWhiz.com, and to contact her, visit www.jobwhiz.com/contact.php.

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Opinions expressed are the author's.